Topic: Don Imus

[my78k]

OK...so I hear they canned Imus for his not so bright comments....

Just wondering about other people's thoughts on this...was the firing too much?

My 2 cents is that it was...yeah it was incredibly dumb to say and yes it was racist and or sexist but since when do people care what Imus says...to me it was a pathetic attempt at humour. He has always tried to push the envelope (even if he does spend most of his time copying Howard Stern) I think this one just got away from him...

I realize that I am a white male so maybe not the best one to comment on it but wanted to hear other's oppinions especially those of you south of the border...

Dennis

[Gordon]

They didn't fire him as punishment.  They fired him because of all the hassle and bad press they would get from minority special interest groups and folks like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson if they didn't. 

Doesn't seem too harsh to me.  If I said something like that at work in front of someone who would be offended by it, you can be damn sure I'd lose my job, and I'd expect to. 

[Rocking-M]

First, seems like a free speech issue to me so he shouldn't have been canned.

Second, we find out what we always knew, money is what matters, if he'd have
made a lot of money on what he said he'd still be broadcasting his poor taste,
but since his sponsor backed out on him he got the ax.

Third, saying anything about a Black person that is unfavorable (doesn't matter if it's true or not)  is unforgivable.
It's ok to trash white folks, particularly white trash rednecks from the South
of which I include myself. Doesn't matter if it's true, hell it can be a pack of lies
but that's ok because whites are guilty of everything evil in the world today.
Just axe Malcolm X, heck he got a stamp in his honor and he wasn't particularly fond
of us white devils.

Personally I'm sick of all this whining about racist, racism, prejudice, etc.........
you name your poison, if anyone doesn't like what someone else has to say they don't have to listen.
I've never listened to Imus and would have switched the dial if he came up on my radio anyway,
I prefer classic Rock
I imagine those girls on the RU team prefer rap where they can be called a whole lot
worse than what Imus called them

[Gordon]

First, seems like a free speech issue to me so he shouldn't have been canned.

The first amendment protects citizens from being prosecuted by the government for what they say.  It has nothing to do with the workplace or guaranteeing you your job. 

[Rocking-M]

I agree with you on that Gordon, but read my second point!

Money is the only real second amendment.

[ProTeal55]

The windy city sure has been in the news allot lately..
1st the #$%* Chicago cop that beat that little bartender becasue she wouldnt serve him after he was clearly drunk, now this Imus guy.

[Gordon]

I agree with you on that Gordon, but read my second point!

Money is the only real second amendment.

I'm not disagreeing with you at all.  Just pointing out that the First Amendment has nothing at all to do with this situation.

[gregwaits]

Yep there seems to be a double standard at work. If the tables were turned and a black radio personality called a white team "a bunch of crackers", I doubt there would have been much said of it.

I heard the clip in question. It was rebroadcast on a local sports station here. What no one mentions is how his producer (I don't know his name) is in the booth with him, and he said - in my opinion - much worse.

On describing the Tennessee/Rutgers girls bball game, he said it was the "jiggaboos vs the wannabees"

No one even mentioned that. It's worse imo. (not to defend Imus)

[upperlake04]

I imagine those girls on the RU team prefer rap where they can be called a whole lot
worse than what Imus called them

 My teenage boys listen to a lot of loud angry rap music and I hear the "musicans" call each other the N word with affection and camaraderie. Me, a white trash redneck from the North, would be ostracised immediately here in polite company and soundly thumped in rough if I uttered the word.  I can't quite get my head around that yet. Someone explain please.

[ProTeal55]

Turn on any "urban" radio station and you will hear more "nicknames" for a White/Caucasian than you can count. Same thing goes for Chris Rock and other African American comedians who make their living by making fun of the "white man".  This is all fine and good, but if I were to call an African American a certain word I would be beaten within an inch of life, if not worse.

Might as well live with it because it isn't gonna change...

[eldar]

What I find #$%*ty about all this is the fuss sharpton and jackson made over the whole thing. Remember the Duke lacrosse players? They supposedly raped some black stripper or something like that? Well those 2 were all over the players and said all kinds of things. Now it appears that those players are INNOCENT. Yet we have not heard an appology from sharpton OR jackson.

If blacks want a double standard then they can not call us any racial slurs. Wouldnt that be fair? Oh wait, the "minorities" dont want fair.

Now dont get me wrong. Not everyone from other races are like this, probably less than 20% on average. The problem is that the rest of them dont exactly do much to stop it sometimes. But crap like this with Imus does nothing to stop racism, it can only make it worse.

[Roach Carver]

my 2 cents: I have an issue with the double standard for sure, but my main complaint is when people profit purely from theur race and caucasians are not extended that same opportunity. Here is my example, when I lived in New Orleans I was always hearing this add on the radio for St. Josephs aspirin. At the end of the add they say that the aspirin was endorsed by the black cardiologists association. Here are my 2 problems. Because I am white I could never form such an organization. Just say it and you can feel how strange it sounds, but black cardiologists association is okay for some reason, but here is my largest problem. This Association of Black cardiologists is paid for their endorsement I am fairly sure.

[upperlake04]

It's ok to trash white folks, particularly white trash rednecks from the South

Thanks RM, we can have fun sticking to our own 

[gregwaits]

We whites have to grin and bear it because of the years of racism foisted on blacks. It isn't right, but thats what it boils down to. It was unbalanced then, so it is unbalanced now (in the other direction, but admittedly not as much).

I work with black guys in the music business all the time and we get along great. In some bands I am the only white on the stand, and when you play jazz, it is not uncommon to be white and the minority.

Jazz is an area with major double standards. It is common practice in many NYC clubs to exclude white guys who want to sit in with the band. I have heard many bands who employ black players who just don't cut it. If they were white and played the same, they wouldn't get called at all.

And in europe, if you hire a black guy to play in your jazz band, you are guaranteed bookings because these ignorant club owners think that just because you are black, you must be able to swing! Rememeber Al Campanallo? (spelling?) He made reference to blacks natural abilities. Ignorance!

Its the whole "white men can't jump" syndrome, and the ignorance of it all sickens me. I doubt that soicety will ever become enlightened enough to transcend it.

[bill440cars]

        From what I heard, Don Imus, at one time might have had a pretty big following and that had dwindled quite a bit over the years. The main thing he had going for him was Big Money Sponsorship. He's said stuff worse that this for 25 yrs or so. I was listening to a guy on ESPN Radio talking with a black guy who is a columnist with the Washington Star (I think he said) and his take on it was right on in my opinion. He said: Those black female basketball players reputation wasn't affected by what Imus said. He called Jackson and Sharpton "Ambulance Chasers" and I thought that was funny and true! This guy was talking like Bill Cosby in as far as how a number of black people are making the whole bunch look bad. He was twisted because there are a number of black athletes going out and doing drugs, getting into fights, stealing and all. His point was that folks like THAT are giving the rest a bad reputation and that is a fact there. I, myself, was raised in central Arkansas and remember the blacks riding in the back of the bus, having separate restrooms, their own schools and such. Over the years My family and I have had a good number of black friends that were good as gold and there are white folks that I wouldn't trust near as much as the black friends. There are a large number of blacks that make their own way without any assistance and then there are those (black and white) who think we (hard working tax paying folks) owe them a living. I've seen a lot of this in my 60 years. Plain and simple!
                     Like it has been said, Imus was fired because of the sponsors pulling out. Most everyone I've heard on TV and Radio says, Yeah suspension, not firing. But, you know what, the guy  was making 10 million dollars a year! There is no way that any human being is worth that much money! No Way!! His show was pulling 20 million! Hello!! A wakeup call is desperately needed!!       

                                                         Later on, Bill

[mlinder]

Jesse Jackson called New York "Himey Town" in 1984.
"White folks was in caves while we was building empires... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it." -- Rev. Al Sharpton in a 1994
(I) "will not let the white boys win in this election." -- Donna Brazile, Al Gore's Campaign Manager on the 2000 election
"The Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He rose Germany up from the ashes." -- Louis Farrakhan (1984)

More Al Sharpton
"1987: Sharpton spreads the incendiary Tawana Brawley hoax, insisting heatedly that a 15-year-old black girl was abducted, raped, and smeared with feces by a group of white men.  He singles out Steve Pagones, a young prosecutor.  Pagones is wholly innocent -- the crime never occurred -- but Sharpton taunts him: "If we're lying, sue us, so we can . . . prove you did it."  Pagones does sue, and eventually wins a $345,000 verdict for defamation.  To this day, Sharpton refuses to recant his unspeakable slander or to apologize for his role in the odious affair."

"1991: A Hasidic Jewish driver in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section accidentally kills Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black child, and antisemitic riots erupt.  Sharpton races to pour gasoline on the fire.  At Gavin's funeral he rails against the "diamond merchants" -- code for Jews -- with "the blood of innocent babies" on their hands.  He mobilizes hundreds of demonstrators to march through the Jewish neighborhood, chanting, "No justice, no peace."  A rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum, is surrounded by a mob shouting "Kill the Jews!" and stabbed to death."

"1995: When the United House of Prayer, a large black landlord in Harlem, raises the rent on Freddy's Fashion Mart, Freddy's white Jewish owner is forced to raise the rent on his subtenant, a black-owned music store.  A landlord-tenant dispute ensues; Sharpton uses it to incite racial hatred.  "We will not stand by," he warns malignantly, "and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business."  Sharpton's National Action Network sets up picket lines; customers going into Freddy's are spat on and cursed as "traitors" and "Uncle Toms."  Some protesters shout, "Burn down the Jew store!"  and simulate striking a match.  "We're going to see that this cracker suffers," says Sharpton's colleague Morris Powell.  On Dec. 8, one of the protesters bursts into Freddy's, shoots four employees point-blank, then sets the store on fire.  Seven employees die in the inferno."

Al Sharpton hasn't been fired, and neither were any of those others.
Equal opportunity, indeed.

[Jv550]

I'm def. not going to defend Sharpton - I can't stand that guy.

What bothers me about Imus' comment is that the women he was referring to have likely spent their whole lives trying to get away from people calling them 'hos'. I mean, they're doing everything right, going to college and playing ball - they're not on a corner somewhere. They are following society's rules and trying to make something out of themselves.

When someone with as much power as Imus makes a comment like that, he is saying to millions of young black women that no matter how hard they try or how much they acheive, they will always be 'nappy headed hos' in his eyes, and presumably in the eyes of his millions of (mostly white) listeners.

Most black women women have it hard enough without being constantly reminded of their traditionally low status in America, and that includes by the Snoop Doggs and fifty Cents of the world too.

[mlinder]

Whats the difference between Imus calling them 'ho's' and Rev Sharpton calling jews "oily diamond merchants"? or 'himeys'?

Sucks when people talk #$%*, no matter what color you are. But if you can fire Imus for it, you had better fire Al Sharpton too.

[Rocking-M]

Al Charlatan and Jesse Jackboot will never lose their support. They have been a leach on
the minority of black folks who are duped into believing their rhetoric. They neither one have
ever worked a honest day in their lives.

As to segregation and supposed racism before and our somehow deserving what we get
now as guilty white folks I say ah bull full of fresh spring grass #$%*.

First a bit of history, supposed prejudice was not witnessed in the south in 1840
by Alex de Tocqueville in his book "Democracy in America" (an extremely insightful book on the problems
we have now). However, when the yankees invaded the north they saw fit to foster the
black rule over the whites in their reconstruction efforts (reconstruction another hoax).
This in turned set the whites out for revenge after the yankees for the most part packed up
and carried their sorry arses back to the north. And, can anyone say that they don't understand
the tide turning when power is given to a people who will not wield it fairly since they for the most
part where unable to do so given their understanding of government and law at that time but then is
returned to those who understand just how much they have been wronged?
But, even then in most southern communities an excess of retaliation was not the norm.
However, segregation did come to be the norm and this was contrary to the practice before the
so called yankee freeing of the slaves. De Tocqueville also points this out as he witnessed none in
the south but segregation and prejudice being surely practiced in the north prior to the war.

My point is that blacks and whites in the South need to recognize the real roots of animosity between the races in the South.
That being the Yankee centralized government that came into power after the War. A government that lives
and breeds animosity between races in order to protect, which means enslave, those who come to them for protection.
The black race traded masters and never has found out how to free itself. This is a generality.
For most all the blacks I grew up with in the late 60's early 70's did not suffer from this dependency.
The county I grew up in was racially equal percentage wise. 1/3 white, 1/3 Indian, and 1/3 black.
I never experienced any racial animosity until the 90's when a bunch of outside blacks move in with a chip
on their shoulders. These were city blacks from the north who moved down to the projects in my home county.
Several had it knocked off.

I think the government loves to continue to foster the guilt complex on the whites and the downtrodden
in need of protection complex on the blacks because it keeps the government in the position of power.

Anyway, I'm sure I've ranted long enough.

 

[Uncle Ernie]

In other words, "Of course the darkies are happy- jes lissen to'm singin!"

BTW, there are doctors who specialize in black medicine for the same reason there are doctors who specialize in women's medicine.  In this case, black people seem to have higher incidences of heart problems.

[Jv550]

Wow. With all due respect, that is just crazy talk. I can't believe people still think like this...

First a bit of history, supposed prejudice was not witnessed in the south in 1840
by Alex de Tocqueville in his book "Democracy in America" (an extremely insightful book on the problems
we have now).

Tocqueville didn't see any prejudice in 1840? Blacks were bought and sold like mules back then! Working for no pay - living in dirt floor shacks - beaten when they tried to run away. Slavery, remember? WTF?

[mlinder]

Imus isn't the point, and neither is slavery or any such other thing unto itself.
The point is it's a one way road, and it shouldn't be.
Al Sharpton is every bit as high profile as Imus, if not moreso.
If halfassed racist comments can end your career, Al Sharptons career should have ended a long time ago.

[Jeb]

Well down south we like a nappy-headed ho.  I guess that's not the case up in jersey.  I wonder if he called them Navajos if he'd still have a job?

[seaweb11]

Whats the difference between Imus calling them 'ho's' and Rev Sharpton calling jews "oily diamond merchants"? or 'himeys'?

A couple of those quotes you gave earlier were 20 years old. I believe we are a little further along in our tolerance now. I don't think that today those type of comments would be taken well either. I saw the women on some show and they seemed to be a very solid group of young educated women. Why would a 60+ year old white guy feel the need?

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

OK guys, be nice to the Rev Al Sharpton-Thurmond. He can now have it both ways and still be pissed at whitey.  (humor intended even if it is lame humor).

Call me an Irish-American from now on. No more of this white/caucasian. I need more r-e-s-p-e-c-t. My personal views after having grown up in the south in the 50's and gotten away from most of that #$%* is to look at each person as an individual and afford the respect they deserve. If they deserve no respect then thats what they get, no respect.

Why don't we have any green people to pick on?